The Green Party has marked May Day with a pre-budget announcement in Tokoroa, detailing the party’s plan for a Green Jobs Guarantee.

“New Zealanders should be in control of our economy, our jobs and our future. We don’t need to leave our fate to be decided by international shareholders,” says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“From the West Coast of the South Island, to Ohakune, to Tokoroa, in the last year alone, we’ve heard the same devastation driven by the same political decisions to let offshore companies decide the fate of regional communities.

“No more.

“Today, we launch our Green Jobs Guarantee, which will directly create at least 40,000 jobs across this country to rebuild our infrastructure, plant native trees and restore biodiversity, build homes and an economy that we, New Zealanders, own - and can genuinely be proud of.

“We’ve done it before and we can do it again. Before politicians took their hands off the wheel of the economy 40 years ago and sold off the assets we all used to own, we had a Ministry of Works. Our Ministry of Green Works builds on that proud tradition but is future fit for the climate transition.

“Our Future Workforce Agency, Mahi Anamata, will actively plan for the skills we need. We’ll revitalise and supercharge the roaring success of Jobs for Nature, and we’ll ensure everyone in this country who wants a good, decent, living-wage paying job will get one.

“In a time of global volatility, after a forty-year economic experiment that’s failed regular people and is currently seeing record numbers leave the country, it’s time to take back control and build our resilience.

“A better world is possible, and this is how we build it,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Notes:

• The Green Jobs Guarantee will create 40,797 jobs with stable working conditions, good incomes, and where people can do meaningful work.
• The Ministry for Green Works (MFGW) will create approximately 25,000 jobs in the construction sector. The economic activity of the MFGW will create an additional 16857 jobs.
• The expansion of the Jobs for Nature scheme will create an additional 15,797 jobs over its first four years.

The Green Party will establish Green Jobs by:

• Establishing a Future Workforce Agency / Mahi Anamata, to plan for future workforce needs, and link together different workstreams that are currently under-resourced (for further detail, see the Just Transitions chapter of He Ara Anamata: Alternative Emissions Reduction Plan).
• Funding a renewed Jobs for Nature programme on an ongoing basis, partnering with local government, community organisations, iwi and hapū to support conservation work – including short-term projects that provide jobs in areas facing high unemployment, and longer-term projects that provide training pathways.
• Expanding Rau Paenga to become a Ministry of Green Works, delivering a government-backed rollout of green industry and infrastructure projects.

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